On the 10^th October, the Scottish Governments transport bill was approved and made law by Scottish Members of Parliament. Within the Bill are new restrictions and laws designed to help both the government and public in preventing global warming. Green Motion currently has four popular rental stations based within the bustling Scottish cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, Glasgow being one of the first cities to implement projects correlating with the countries new transport laws.

The first of the points is that high emission or older models of vehicles will eventually be charged daily upon entering congested areas within cities, these will be called Low Emission Zones. Glasgow is the first city to enforce this law although currently this only applies to high nitrogen dioxide producing buses. The scheme is, however, due to be rolled out to all high emission vehicles by 2022 using ANPR cameras across cities to monitor the low emissions zones. This means that the new decade should bring with it an increase of electric vehicles being used across Scotland, including rental vehicles. To see whether your vehicle may be affected by these charges, please click here. If your car is considered a high emission vehicle then it’s strongly advised that you switch to a more desirable option. The transition can be made easier by testing out an Electric vehicle from one of our worldwide Green Motion fleets, before investing in your own.

Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen councils are now also discussing the introduction of Low Emission Zones, so get please be sure to check your vehicle's registration plate to see whether you’ll be affected.

In 2016 Scottish Government made it an offence to park on pavements, this was then followed this year with the proposition from MP Sandra White to make it illegal for a vehicle to double park. This bill received unanimous support from the SNP government, due to the lack of law prohibiting pavement parking. Previous Acts such as The Roads (Scotland) Act 1984, suggest that to obstruct a road is an offence but there is no written law in Scotland’s that specifies parking your vehicle on a road as illegal. This has been rectified in the new bill and can be seen from the points below -

• parking on the pavement is prohibited, subject to a number of exemptions
• double parking is prohibited, subject to a number of exemptions
• local authorities can exempt certain streets/part of streets
• a system will be created for local authorities to enforce the pavement parking and double-parking prohibitions
• vehicles will be moved, removed and eventually disposed of, subject to a number of safeguards.

If you’re unsure of any local laws or restrictions in the area you’re renting from then please, just ask for advice from the Green Motion rental counter or contact us via the contact form on our website, we’d be happy to assist!

In the last 5 years, the number of people combatting climate change by opting to travel by public transport has dropped by 10%. To address this, the government have started granting local councils flexibility to improve their services and partner with existing bus companies to make the option more appealing to the public.

The last of the main points raised within the Transport Bill applies to those driving to their workplaces. To improve numbers of those carpooling or opting to use public transport, both Glasgow and Edinburgh have begun imposing the workplace parking levy which will see workplaces with 10 or more parking spaces being charged upwards of £415 a year for every space. It is then the employee’s decision to pass the fee onto employees or handle the costs themselves. NHS sites would be exempt for the Scottish scheme but it would be up to councils to decide on other exemptions.

One way to avoid these new charges and improve your carbon footprint is to walk or use public transport to get to your workplace, opting only to use electric hire vehicles to travel to further locations.